# Norwegian film Dreams (Sex Love) takes Berlin’s Golden Bear

Event date: 2025-02-22

The Norwegian drama Dreams (Sex Love) has won the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, giving Dag Johan Haugerud the festival’s top prize for a film centered on queer love, memory and the changing meaning of intimacy.

The film follows a student who falls in love with her charismatic teacher and later shares a written account of the relationship with her grandmother and mother. According to DW’s coverage of the awards, the jury praised the work for its universal impact and for the strength of the performances across the four central roles. The cast includes Ella Overbye, Selome Emnetu, Ane Dahl Torp and Anne Marit Jacobsen.

The award places Haugerud’s film at the center of a competition that also recognized several other international titles. The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to The Blue Trail by Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro, while the Silver Bear Jury Prize went to the Argentine film The Message. Chinese director Huo Meng won best director for Living the Land. Rose Byrne was recognized for lead performance in If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, and Andrew Scott received the Silver Bear for supporting performance in Blue Moon.

The Berlinale’s awards were again shaped by the festival’s broader attempt to balance cinema, politics and cultural attention. DW noted that politically direct films were largely snubbed by the jury this year, even though the festival still included work linked to war, borders and public controversy. That makes the win for Dreams notable not because it avoids politics, but because it was judged to have reached beyond a specific issue to something more universal.

The festival also used the occasion to honor a major figure in cinema. Tilda Swinton received the Honorary Golden Bear, an award the Berlinale says has been used since 1977 to recognize artistic lifetime achievement. The festival’s official page says the prize is presented every year at the Opening Gala and that the winner is honored during the festival with a screening of one of their films.

This year’s ceremony was the first Berlinale under artistic director Tricia Tuttle. DW reported that she largely avoided political statements during the festival, though the event still featured pointed speeches and debate over some of the films in competition. That context matters because Berlin has long been seen as the most political of the major European festivals, even when the jury chooses winners that are more intimate in scale.

Dreams (Sex Love) now joins the list of films that have won Berlin’s top prize by turning a private emotional story into a work with wider resonance. The jury’s choice, and the honorary award for Swinton, together gave the 2025 edition a mix of new international recognition and formal tribute to a long career.